Cohen, Douglas Engelbart, Robert Langer, and
Carver Mead. Lemelson and his wife gave the Smith-
sonian Institution money to build the Jerome and
Dorothy Lemelson Center for the Study of Inven-
tion and Innovation, which was founded in 1995 at
the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American
History.
American Heritageand other mainstream maga-
zines printed articles about the history of invention
in the United States. The October, 1991, issue of the
scholarly journalTechnology and Culturefocused on
invention and patent themes.Popular Science,News-
week, andTimeprofiled the decade’s most significant
inventions in special issues listing the century’s in-
vention achievements. The digital answering ma-
chine, Pentium processor, and Java were among the
periodicals’ choices representing the 1990’s.
Impact Inventions developed in the 1990’s offered
consumers increased technological and scientific
choices but limited many inventors’ options to cre-
ate, patent, and market their ideas autonomously.
That decade, although honoring historical prece-
dents, marked notable transitions in inventive cul-
ture that sought reform and change from patenting
methods in prior decades, adjusting to international
economic demands and benefits. Corporate inter-
ests transformed the invention process from innova-
tion often envisioned by individuals working alone
to groups of researchers hired by industries or uni-
versities to develop technology capable of generat-
ing millions, sometimes billions, of dollars in licens-
ing fees and royalties.
As the USPTO assumed a corporate structure
during the 1990’s, its rigid bureaucracy and expen-
sive fees became prohibitive to many independent
inventors who received less government support in
their endeavors. Of the 250,000 applications filed in
1998, only 15 percent were submitted by noncorpor-
ate inventors. Affiliated professionals, notably pat-
ent attorneys, profited from legal work involved in
filing patents and associated litigation.
Subsequent Events Biotechnology and electronic
inventions from the 1990’s inspired more refined,
quicker, or miniature versions that were patented in
the early twenty-first century. Inventors filed approx-
imately 312,000 patent applications in 2000, submit-
ting more each year as new materials and economic
opportunities spurred invention. The USPTO de-
vised its Genetic Sequence Database, USGENE. As
profits motivated both inventors and patent thieves,
U.S. legislators continued to debate patent reforms,
particularly controlling infringement.Further Reading
Brown, David E.Inventing Modern America: From the
Microwave to the Mouse. Foreword by Lester C.
Thurow. Introductions by James Burke. Cam-
bridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2002. Discusses contri-
butions of several 1990’s genetics, physics, and
computer innovators, including Tim Berners-Lee
and Marc Andreessen.
Carey, John. “Patent Reform Pending: A New Bill
Has Small Inventors on the Defensive.”Business
Week, November 22, 1999, pp. 74, 78-79. Outlines
the status of patent legislation by the end of the
1990’s and possible compromises. Notes how
Jerome Lemelson’s patent settlements provoked
demands for reforms.
Carlisle, Rodney P.Scientific American Inventions and
Discoveries: All the Milestones in Ingenuity—From the
Discover y of Fire to the Invention of the Microwave
Oven. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, 2004.
Examines such 1990’s inventions as carbon com-
posite materials, digital cameras, and computer
products, specifying industrial financial losses
due to faulty Pentium II chips.
Evans, Harold, with Gail Buckland and David Lefer.
They Made America: From the Steam Engine to the
Search Engine: Two Centuries of Innovators. New
York: Little, Brown, 2004. Comprehensive history
of U.S. inventions, with a digital age section pro-
filing such significant 1990’s inventors as Ray-
mond Damadian.
Giscard d’Estaing, Valérie-Anne, and Mark Young,
eds.Inventions and Discoveries 1993: What’s Hap-
pened, What’s Coming, What’s That?New York: Facts
On File, 1993. Features inventions from the early
1990’s, placing each invention, sometimes ac-
companied by an illustration, in appropriate cate-
gories identifying its function. Giscard d’Estaing
published several other invention almanacs in
the 1990’s.
Seabrook, John. “The Flash of Genius.”The New Yorker
68 (January 11, 1993): 38-40, 42-52. Account of
how Robert Kearns invented the intermittent
windshield wiper and reacted when he discovered
his patent had been infringed, including quotes
from Kearns and automotive manufacturing rep-
resentatives regarding Kearns’s litigation.The Nineties in America Inventions 461